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Schools are spending money set aside for their poorest pupils to pay teacher salaries, a survey has found.

More than a quarter (27 per cent) of secondary school head teachers and 22 per cent of primary heads admitted using their pupil premium fund to "plug gaps" in their budget, according to a poll of teachers.

The number of assistants increased by a fifth between 2011-17, according to the Department for Education (DfE).

Head teachers in the most deprived schools were twice as likely to report using their pupil premium money to plug budget gaps as their colleagues in the least deprived, analysis by the Sutton Trust, a foundation that aims to reduce educational inequality, found. The premium grant is an extra source of government funding for state schools, which is allocated according to the number of children enrolled who are from disadvantaged families.

Introduced by the coalition government in 2011, it is designed as an incentive for the best schools to recruit more children from vulnerable backgrounds who may require additional support.

Schools are given an extra £2,300 for each pupil who is or was previously in local authority care and between £935 and £1,320 for each pupil who is eligible for free school meals. Schools also receive £300 for a child whose parents are in the Armed Forces.

The funds are targeted at initiatives designed to level out the differences in academic results between children from deprived backgrounds and their better-off peers.

Head teachers are not told exactly how to spend the funds but they are required to publish a strategy on how they intend to spend the money including an analysis of the effect this will have on pupils.

However, the poll of 1,678 teachers and heads found that less than half (45 per cent) agreed that the premium was helping to close gaps in attainment.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it confirmed that funding was "totally inadequate".

"School leaders have been left with no option other than to cut teachers and [assistants] ... a significant number have had to plug funding gaps by using pupil premium money," he added.

A spokesman for the DfE said: "There is more money going into our schools than ever before and, since 2017, we have given every local authority more money for every five to 16-year-old in every school and made funding fairer."

A "wide range" of support was available to help schools "make the most of every pound on non-staff costs".